Metal wall studs are used in the construction industry to provide the framing members used for the construction of buildings. The metal wall studs are used instead of conventional wood framing members to form the wall panels. The panels can be pre-assembled and delivered to the building site where they are put in place.
The typical wall panel consists of horizontal and vertical studs. In order to provide further reinforcement, diagonal wall members are placed between the corners of the panels. The diagonal members are needed to resist lateral loads to the wall panel and to comply with seismic building requirements. The diagonal members are straps that are typically connected to the face of the studs. In this arrangement, the diagonal members can only provide resistance to tension forces in one direction. Due to building requirements, this type of arrangement cannot be used for two story structures. Also, the strap usually adds thickness to the wall panel which complicates the finishing of the structure.
In addition to using straps, threaded rods can also be used as the diagonal members. However, the threaded rods suffer the same drawbacks as the strap. Specifically, the threaded rod can only take tension loads and will buckle under compressive loads. The threaded rod is therefore not adequate to meet seismic building codes. Furthermore, the threaded rods add thickness to the building panel thereby complicating construction.